Friday, February 22, 2013

Nikon announced the launch of their new "flagship" DX camera the D7100 to replace the D7000 and the D300s as well. This new DX body has a 24 MP sensor , an EXPEED 3 image processor, 2 SD cards, 51 focus points, 3.2 inch LCD and a lighter camera body at 675 grams. The street price of the camera (body only) is $1196.95.

Wednesday, February 20, 2013

This is a list prepared by a fellow trekker Projjwal Das which mentions the stores selling trekking and mountaineering gear in Kolkata. It should be useful to most trekkers and climbers who go to the mountains.

Wednesday, February 13, 2013

The MarkhaValley is one of the most popular treks in Ladakh. It is
relatively short, located close to Leh, the walking is mostly below 4000 metres
with night stops around 3500 metres and has the best of Ladakh thrown in:
Sculpted canyons and fantastic rock formations, medieval villages,
Buddhist gompas and snow-peaks. When approached from Chilling there is only one
pass to cross the Kongmaru La which comes on Day 8 of the trek by which time
most trekkers are properly acclimatised. The
cost of the trek is Rs 44,500 ( USD 825) Leh to Leh - exclusions apply. For
further details please do e-mail us atsujoyrdas@gmail.com or check our web site at Markha Valley trek.

Day 01 Delhi to Leh

We take the
spectacular one hour flight over the Himalayas to Leh. Be
prepared to sit on the left hand window seat for the best views. The rest of
the day is spent acclimatizing in Leh.

Day 02 Acclimatization
day in and around Leh

We take the opportunity
to visit some of the splendid monasteries in and around Leh like Shey, Thikse,
Hemis etc.

Day 03 Leh to Chilling
by road and then walk to Skiu 3400m (4 hours)

We leave Leh in the
morning after an early breakfast and then drive to Chilling in around two
and a half hours. We meet our pony man and support team in Chilling. From
Chilling we start our four hour walk to Skiu and reach by later
afternoon.

Day 04 Skiu to Tunespa 3600 m ( 4 hours)

The trail is mostly flat
following the Markha river. After around three hours the trail crosses a bridge
and then traverses some steep slopes before entering the hamlet of Chaluk. From
Chaluk there is a short walk to Tunespa which is small village with cultivated fields.

The trail from Tunespa
climbs up to some chortens from where there is a good view of the valley. It
continues to follow the river until it enters Markha where we have lunch. From
Markha it is a gentle climb past Umlung to Hankar where we stop for the night.

Day 06 Hankar to
Tahungtse 4150 metres 3 hours and the Tahungtse to the Tea
Tent (lake) 3 hoursFrom Hankar the trail climbs to reach
the walled pastures of Tahungtse. We stop for an early lunch here and then
proceed after lunch to reach the small tarn with excellent mountain views.
There is a small tea tent here in season for refreshments.

Day
07 Tea Tent to Nimaling ( 4720 meters) 2 hours uphill

The trail climbs to
Nimaling which is a large valley where yaks, sheep and goats are grazed by the
villagers of Markha. We do a short day to Nimaling as the next day has a pass
crossing and a stiff downhill! It is beautiful campsite but can often be cold
and windy!

Day 08 Nimaling to Kongmaru La 5100 meters 2 hours and then down to Chukirmo
4050 meters four hours

The trail then climbs to
the pass of Kongmaru La from where there are good views over the Zanskar
mountains and the peak of Kang Yaze. From the pass the trail drops steeply for about 1000 metres to the
settlement of Chukirmo where we camp for the night.

Day 09 Chukirmo
to Shang Sumdo 31/2 hours and then drive to Leh two hours

The trail continues to
drop but more gradually now to Chogdo and then passes a school and
finally enters Shang Sumdo. We have our packed lunch in Shang Sumdo and then
drive back to Leh.
Day 10 Leh to DelhiWe can avail the morning flight from
Leh to Delhi and be back in civilization in an hour! In case
you wish to stay on in Leh further please do inform us for hotel bookings and
onward reservations.

Wednesday, February 6, 2013

On a recent South Col trek to Nepal I was able to experiment with a lot of mountain
photography at dusk and at night. I am sharing some tips in this post:

TRIPOD

It goes without saying that the first requirement for night
photography of mountains is a strong rock steady tripod. Monopods and table top
tripods are not real substitute to a good tripod. I know this means lugging up
and down the mountain another 1 to 2 kgs of weight but if you need to shoot
long exposures then you need the tripod.

VR/IS

If your camera is on a tripod set VR or IS off - you dont need any vibration reduction as the tripod is supposed to be rock steady!

AUTOFOCUS

Please do set autofocus off and focus your lens manually - my experience is that with autofocus on the camera hunts for a correct focus point at night!

ISO

The newer generation of DSLRs have pushed high ISO
performance to 3200 and 6400 with some amazingly good results but I am
conservative in this regard – if I can put my camera on a tripod I still prefer
the lower ISO settings 200-800 with longer exposures.

APERTURE

I would usually select a middle of the range aperture like f5.6
, f6.3 or f8 unless I need depth of field from foreground right up to infinity.
In that case I may even stop down to f16!

SHUTTER SPEED and METERING

After setting the ISO and aperture the balancing factor
would be the shutter speed. It is hard to select the shutter speed in low light
and make a perfect exposure. There is a lot of black and deep shadows in the
photograph and usually the metering is fooled by this resulting in some over
exposure. As a rule of thumb setting the exposure compensation to -0.7 and
bracketing two stops around the meter reading usually gives one good shot!
Speeds can be as low as 15 sec, 30 sec and sometimes even one minute using this
bracketing technique. Most DSLRs wont go
below 30 sec so you would have to switch to bulb mode fire the shutter with a remote release and
then close it again.

30 sec, f7.1 ISO 200

WHITE BALANCE

I usally set the white balance to Auto and keep it that way - in case there is any extraordinary colour shift I would correct it in processing. but this is not usual.

RAW

Oh and finally do shoot raw - makes a huge difference to the final image!

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All the photographs and text on this blog are mine, unless I explicitly mention otherwise. Please do not use any of my photographs without my permission. If you want to use any of them, email me at sujoyrdas@gmail.com

About Me

Sujoy Das has been trekking and photographing in the Himalayas for the last thirty years. He leads treks under the banner of South Col Expeditions. He is the joint author and photographer of Sikkim - A Travellers Guide with Arundhati Ray and author of Lonely Planet-Nepal for the Indian Traveller. His essays and photographs have been published in books and magazines worldwide including The Washington Post, APA Publications, Outlook Traveller, India Today Travel Plus, Times of India Crest etc. He is currently working on a book on the Nepal Himalaya and organizing treks and photo expeditions as a part of South Col Expeditions. He is also a contributing photographer to www.lightandcomposiiton.com . For more information and photographs, please do visit www.sujoydas.com and www.sujoyrdas.blogspot.com